Sunday, January 31, 2016

I read a great quote about love a few months ago in a
book written by a friend. The quote came from a sermon preached by Dr. Haddon
Robinson at a pastors’ conference, and the text was our epistle for today, 1
Corinthians 13.1-13. Toward the end of his sermon, Dr. Robinson said this: “Love is that thing which, if a
church has it, it doesn't really need much else, and if it doesn't have it,
whatever else it has doesn't really matter very much”.

I think this is exactly what
Paul is trying to get at in our epistle for today. Before we dive right into
it, let’s remind ourselves of two things. First, the meaning of the word
‘love’. It has many different meanings in the English language, but
nowadays we mostly use it to describe an emotion.
Paul, however, was writing in Greek, not English, and Greek is richer when it
comes to words for love. There’s ‘eros’, which refers to what today we would
call romantic or sexual love – love that is a response to beauty or goodness in
the beloved. There’s ‘phileo’, from which we get our word ‘philanthropy’; in
Greek its meaning is close to what we would today call ‘friendship’. There’s
‘storge’, which carries the sense of ‘love of the familiar’ – the love we have
for family members or people we’ve known all our lives.

But Paul doesn’t use any of
those words, and neither do most of the writers of the New Testament. Instead
they use a word that they may have invented themselves; it certainly doesn’t
appear in any earlier Greek literature. The word is ‘agapé’, and it doesn’t
describe an emotion at all. Agapé isn’t based on affection or approval; it’s
totally unconditional, coming as a free gift, not because the beloved deserves
it but because the lover chooses to give it. It’s a decision of the will to act
in the other person’s best interests, whether we feel like it or not. It’s
getting down at the supper table and washing your disciples’ feet. It’s being
willing to lay down your life to save people who don’t even care about you. It’s
the way God loves us, and the way God calls us to act toward others as well.

So let’s remember this: when
Paul says that love is the more excellent way, he’s not talking about storge or
eros or phileo ; he’s talking about agapé. Secondly, let’s remember who this
letter was written to. Corinth
was a city in ancient Greece, famous throughout the world for its sexual
immorality. It was also a place where the Greek mystery religions were very
popular. Those religions went in for spiritual experience in a big way; the
people who participated in them were used to being moved by powerful
supernatural forces. They might go into a trance, or experience a powerful
emotion like ecstasy, or be transported out of the body, or carry out some other
strange course of action. This sort of thing was regarded as normal in the
mystery religions; not only that, it was the way you knew that you were
encountering something real. If you didn’t experience any of this, there wasn’t
much point in being involved in that particular cult or religion.

So the Corinthian Christians liked dramatic
spiritual experiences. They loved supernatural gifts like speaking in tongues
and miracles and healings. But they were rather self-indulgent about them, and
Paul had a suspicion that sometimes there wasn’t a lot of love in the way they
used those gifts. So in last week’s passage Paul reminded them that the church
is like a body, the Body of Christ. Each organ and limb has an essential part
to play in the life of the body. So it is with the church; each of us has been
given spiritual gifts, but we’re to use them in love, to build up the whole
Body of Christ, not to show off or chase after spiritual thrills.

And so we come to this great chapter on love
in 1 Corinthians 13. Let’s look at it in three parts. First, in verses 1-3,
Paul teaches us that love is essential
to the life of the church.

If I speak
in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my
possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have
love, I gain nothing.

Knowing what
we do about the Corinthian Christians, we can understand why Paul is using
these examples. These are the things they valued the most in their spiritual
lives – speaking in tongues, prophecy, understanding mysteries, having enough
faith to do spectacular things. And they loved the ‘grand gesture’. There’s a
story about young Francesco Bernadone, who later became St. Francis of Assisi.
As a young man he had a powerful conversion experience, and in obedience to the
gospel call he proceeded to start giving away his possessions. Except that they
weren’t his possessions, they were
his father’s! His father was a wealthy cloth merchant, and when he saw what his
son was doing, he dragged him before the Bishop of Assisi in the town square
and demanded that the Bishop tell his son to stop giving away things that
didn’t belong to him. In response, Francis stripped himself naked in front of
everyone, handed his clothes to his father, and said, “There – now you have
everything that belongs to you”. He then went off to live as a hermit in
literal obedience to the gospel call of Jesus.

The Corinthians
would have loved this story; they
loved the grand gesture – ‘If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand
over my body so that I may boast’ (v.3). But Paul is reminding them that all of
this – using miraculous gifts, performing dramatic acts of faith and so on – is
worth absolutely zero if it’s not all about agapé love for others.

Well, it’s
easy for us to sit in judgement on the Corinthians; after all, most Anglicans
aren’t tempted by speaking in tongues or displays of religious emotion. But
what would Paul say to us today? How about this:

‘If we have
the most beautiful liturgy ever designed by human beings, performed by people
in the most splendid robes, with music from the best possible choir, but do not
have love, we are a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. And if we have the most
beautiful church building, with a gorgeous sanctuary and lots of program space,
and fancy offices and plush carpets, but don’t have love, we are nothing. If we
produce excellent ministry plans and offer a multitude of different programs –
if we have multiple services aimed at different kinds of people – if we have a
high profile in the city and people are talking about our church – but don’t
have love, we gain nothing’.

Yes, I think that is what Paul would say to
us. Remember again the wise words of Haddon Robinson: “Love
is that thing which, if a church has it, it doesn't really need much else, and
if it doesn't have it, whatever else it has doesn’t really matter very much”.
That’s exactly what Paul is trying to say in this passage. We aren’t going to
be questioned about our splendid liturgy and impressive list of programs. We’re
going to be questioned about love.

So Paul starts by telling us
that love is essential to the life of the church. Secondly, in verses 4-6 he describes to us what love is and what it
does.

Love is
patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It
does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not
rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

As I was reading this passage
over in preparation for this sermon, it became very clear to me that all the
positive statements in this passage could be applied to God, and all the
negative ones could be applied to me. God is patient, God is kind. God rejoices
in the truth. God bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things. But me? I’m envious, and boastful, and arrogant, and rude!
I insist on my own way, I’m irritable and resentful, and far too often, I
rejoice in wrongdoing! So I have a long way to go – as do we all.

Paul tells
us that those who love are patient with one another. In modern English, ‘patient’
can mean we’re not in a hurry, but it can also mean we bear with one another’s
weaknesses and make allowances for one another. It’s the second meaning that
Paul is using here. Those who love, know themselves well; they know we all
grow slowly, fail many times, and need healthy dollops of forgiveness. This is
how God acts toward us – he is infinitely patient with us – and those who are
growing in love are learning to treat others in the same way.

Those who
love are kind to one another. They treat each other gently and
considerately, do good things for one another, give freely to one another, and
treat each other as valued human beings. They always remember Jesus’ golden
rule: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew
7:12), and they do their best to practice it.

Those who
love are not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Envy, boasting, arrogance
and rudeness are all about competition
– I’m in competition with your wealth, your popularity, your success, your good
looks, your spiritual gifts, your experience of God. Deep down inside, these
folks are insecure; they believe there’s only so much love and success and good
fortune to go around, and if I’m not careful, someone’s going to cheat me out
of my fair share. But those who love are not in competition with each other;
they rejoice in each other’s blessings without wishing to have them for
themselves.

Those who
love do not insist on their own way. They understand that, as someone
one said, ‘Everyone is an “I”’ – in other words, everyone I meet has a life of
their own. They don’t see themselves as supporting actors in my play; they’re the lead actors in
their own play. And gradually, as we
grow together, we all learn to see ourselves as supporting actors in God’s play. It’s not about me, so I don’t
always have to get what I want.

Those who
love are not irritable or resentful. They don’t get easily upset or
offended by others; in fact, they choose not to take offence. They don’t hold
grudges and hang on to past hurts. They’re learning that if you do that, you
bind yourself to the past with chains of iron. They want to be free, so they’re
learning to let go of pride and anger and embrace the way of forgiveness and
grace.

Those who
love don’t rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoice in the truth. In other
words, their love isn’t an easygoing love. When they see people doing wrong and
hurting others, they don’t just stand by and let it happen. When a word of truth
needs to be spoken, they’re ready to speak it – but out of love, not out of a
need to judge or control others.

Those who
love bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all
things. In other words, they don’t give up on people. Their love for one another
is stubborn; it’s what the Old Testament calls in Hebrew ‘chesed’, which is
translated in our NRSV as ‘steadfast love’. Eugene Peterson’s ‘Message’
translation of the Bible says, ‘Love…puts up with anything, trusts God always,
always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end’.

So this is
what Paul means by love. Of course, it’s a tall order. I can see why some
churches would rather work on splendid liturgies or efficient organization! It’s
so much easier to have a brilliant website or a service for every taste than it
is to put yourself out to truly love people as Paul describes it here, not
holding anything back, never giving up hope, remaining faithful to the end. I
have to confess, all I can think of is how far I fall short. But at the same
time, the passage inspires me and challenges me: this truly ought to be our
goal as a Christian community!

So Paul has
told us that love is essential to the life of the church, and he’s described
for us what love is and what is does. Finally, in verses 8-13 he tells us that love
is the only thing that will last forever.

Love never
ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they
will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part,
and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will
come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a
child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to
childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to
face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been
fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest
of these is love.

Many of us
have probably heard this passage from 1 Corinthians read at weddings, but I
have to tell you that in recent years I’ve also used it at funeral services,
and people seem to appreciate it. Paul is asking his friends in Corinth is, “What’s
going to last? On that day when we see God face to face, what will really be
important?” Will it be our reputation for wisdom or knowledge or supernatural
experiences? No – in fact, on that day, we’ll be brought face to face with the
truth of how little we really knew!
We might think we have a good understanding of God and the way God works in the
world, but one day we’ll look back and think, “How could I have been so blind?”
All our inspired speech and glorious miracles and splendid liturgies and
sophisticated programming – on the day we see God face to face, it’ll all just
be like child’s play to us then.

So many
people, when they come to the end of their lives, regret all the time and
energy they’ve spent on things that mean absolutely nothing to them on their deathbeds.
Some people set great store by
accumulating possessions and money; some people spend their lives trying to be
a success in all they do. Some people live for the good opinion of others;
their greatest desire is to impress others and to be popular and well-liked.
But in the end, Paul would say to us, none of that’s going to last; it’s all
going to pass away.

What will last? Only three things, says Paul –
faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love. Or, as Eugene
Peterson puts it in ‘The Message’:

But for
right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us
toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.
And the best of these is love.

So, my
brothers and sisters, let’s never let ourselves settle for less than this. Let’s
never forget that this is the most important thing we can work on, because
without it, everything else is just noise and busywork. So let’s end as we
began, with these wise words of Dr. Haddon Robinson: “Love is that thing which, if a
church has it, it doesn't really need much else, and if it doesn't have it,
whatever else it has doesn't really matter very much”.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Please bring your palms from last year
back to the Church by February 7th, 2016 so we can burn them for Ash
Wednesday!

February 1st, 2016

Office is closed

3:30 pmMusic Rental

February 2-4, 2016

Tim is attending the “Clergy Retreat”

February 4th, 2016

7:00 amMen and Women’s Bible Study @ the
Bogani Cafe

February 7th, 2016

9:00
amHoly Communion

9:45
amCoffee between Services

10:30
am Holy Communion & Sunday School

12
noon“Life in the Eucharist”
start up meeting

It
has come to our attention that many people are either away or not well so we have decided to cancel the Faith,
Fun and Fellowship Potluck on Tuesday February 2nd and focus on the Shrove Tuesday Pancake
Supper on February 9th instead!
There are two sittings, 5:00 & 6:00 pm. Sign up sheet is in the foyer!!

We would like to invite you and your children
to join us for Spaghetti Church on Saturday
January 30th, 2016 from 4pm to 6pm. Spaghetti Church is church
for families that enjoy a more informal, activity-centered and
community-oriented way of worshipping together from time to time. It typically
includes a craft or other activity time, a family-friendly worship and teaching
time, and a simple meal (hence the spaghetti!). Please note that this is not
something you can drop your kids off for; it is intended to be about families
worshipping together.

We do have a signup sheet policy as food is
prepared for all who will be coming. Spaghetti Church is only possible because
the people who come volunteer to help out with the various tasks.

Saturday
February 27th - Vanguard
College presents “Kid’s Travel Company “, a half day camp for kids. Noon to
5:00 pm

February Faith, Fun and Fellowship

February 9th: Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper 5.00 – 7.00 p.m.

We will have two sittings – 5.00
and 6.00 – and a suggested donation of $5 per person to cover the cost of the
supplies. Any moneys received in addition to this will go to our World Vision
appeal for the ‘Raw Hope’ project.

February 16th: ‘Free For All’ 7.30 – 9.00 p.m.

Continuing from last month, with
room for new questions too!

February 23rd: ‘Faith at Work’ 7.30 – 9.00 p.m.

What does it mean to live as a
follower of Jesus when I go to work? What tensions do I experience between my
work and my faith? What opportunities do I see to serve God there? How can I
live more consistently as a Christian in my place of work? And why is this
important?

Winnifred Stewart: Empties to Winn Project

Please feel free to bring some or all of your empty
bottles (juice, milk, cans, and other beverage containers) and drop them in our
bags. Please support Winnifred Stewart by making provision for this project!
Thank you! Next pick up is February 12th!

The Lunch Bunch .

Thursday,
February 25th, 2016 at 11:30 a.m. at St. Margaret's Church will be
our New Year date for the Lunch Bunch. Everyone is welcome. Please
come and join us for a hot bowl of soup and a presentation of Arctic slides by
Tim.

Saturday, February 27th, 2016 from noon to
5:00 pm.

Kids Travel Company is a dynamic ministry based out of Vanguard
College which travels year round sharing God’s love with kids. KTC helps lead
children into a deeper relationship with God through skits, games, memory
verses, crafts, object lessons, worship songs, and most of all through
friendships. One
of our goals is to speak truth to the next generation and have tons of fun
doing it.

Spaghetti Church to follow directly afterwards.

Invite your friends!

Retrouvaille
A Lifeline for Marriage – Retrouvaille helps couples through difficult times in their
marriages. Has your marriage passed through the Romance stage? Retrouvaille is
designed to provide the tools to help get your marriage back on track. It will
give you the opportunity to rediscover each other and examine your lives
together in a new and positive way. This program has helped 10’s of 1000’s of
couples experiencing marital difficulty at any stage. For confidential
information or to register for the program beginning with a weekend on Mar
11-13, 2016.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

For many people, it’s a building; when they say, ‘our church’, they’re referring to the
building in which they meet for worship.

For other people, it’s an institution. There used to be a saying that
when a young man - it was always a young man
in those days - decided to become a priest he was ‘going into the Church’. And
you thought it was faith and baptism that did the trick, didn’t you? Apparently
in those days they’d forgotten about that!

A third common use of the term is the church
as a community. This is usually a
local thing; people talk about ‘my church’, meaning the particular congregation
of which they’re a part. We want it to be a welcoming community, a friendly
community, a community that has lots of activities and programs to support
people through the stresses and strains of their lives.

There’s some truth in all three of these
common ways of thinking of the church – the church as a building, as an institution,
and as a community – but they all
fall short of the image that Paul uses in our epistle for today when he talks
about the church as a body. And not
just as any body, either – as the body of Christ. In other words, the Church is
not just here because of human initiatives: the
Church is the primary way that Jesus Christ has chosen to be present and
working in the world today.

Let’s remind ourselves first of the context.
Paul is writing to Christians in the Greek city of Corinth, a church that seems
to have been full of the Holy Spirit, with many great strengths but also many
problems and weaknesses. If you read through this first letter of Paul to the
Corinthians, you find exciting things about supernatural gifts – speaking in
tongues, prophecy, healing, miracles and so on. Corinth wasn’t the sort of
church where people get bored and fall asleep half way through the service!
People came together with a lively sense of expectation that they would meet
God and see God do spectacular things.

But there were also weaknesses. In 1
Corinthians we read about sexual scandals, and about disagreements about
whether you should eat meat offered to idols. We read about divisions in the
church, with people splitting of into little cliques grouped around their
favourite charismatic leader. We read about disruptions in the fellowship
meals, with some people eating more than their fair share so that others had
nothing. Paul is very concerned about these things. People seem to have lost
their sense of purpose; they don’t know what church is about, and they’ve come
to think that it’s all about me. I
want to have an exciting time when I come to church; I want to have a thrill,
and I want to be seen and noticed and have people admire me for being such a
spiritual person. I doubt if anyone in Corinth would have expressed it as
blatantly as all that, but when Paul scratched below the surface, that’s what
he saw.

To address these issues, Paul comes up with
this image of the church as the body of Christ. It’s as if he’s saying to the
Corinthian Christians, ‘You folks have forgotten what the Church is for. You need to ask yourselves why God
needs a Church in the first place. What was in the mind of God when he looked
out over the earth one day and said, “I know what that place needs – it needs
the Church of Jesus Christ?”’

The answer is that Jesus needs a body. When
he walked the earth as one of us, he had a body, and he used it to do God’s
will and to love God and other people wherever he went. He used his legs to
walk around and go to new places to share the good news and heal the sick. He
used his hands to heal people and to touch the untouchables. He used his ears
to listen to what his Father was saying to him, and to listen to the needs of
the people he met. He used his mind and voice to proclaim the gospel and teach
people how to live into the Kingdom of God. And ultimately, he offered his body
as a sacrifice, allowing nails to be pounded through his wrists and feet and a
spear to be thrust into his side, showing everyone that there is a price to be
paid for doing God’s will, but if you are faithful to God, in the long run God will
be faithful to you as well.

So you see, Jesus’ mission during his three
years on earth was very physical;
without his body, he couldn’t have done it. But Jesus’ physical body is no
longer on earth; he has ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of
the Father. So how is he going to heal the sick and touch the untouchable and
hug the lonely and spread the good news and teach the ways of God to the people
of the world?

The answer is that the Holy Spirit is
gathering a new body for Jesus – a
huge organism made up of millions of limbs and organs and members – each of
them a living, breathing human being. It’s you – you are the Body of Christ. In
1 Corinthians 12:27 Paul says, ‘Now you are the body of Christ and individually
members of it’. When he says, ‘members’, a better translation of the Greek
might be ‘limbs’. We aren’t ‘members’ of the body of Christ in the same sense
that we are members of the Elks or of a political party. There is an organic
connection between us Christians that isn’t present in any other human society.

What is that connection? Look at verses
12-13:

For just as the body is one and has many
members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is
with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or
Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

What is the connection? The connection is the
Holy Spirit. By the work of the Holy Spirit we have all been baptized into one
Body, and we have all been given the same Holy Spirit to drink.

This is important, because this Body of
Christ is actually a very diverse group. Paul names here two of the strongest
social divisions he can think of in the world of his day – the division between
Jews and Greeks, and the division between slaves and free. In the Body of
Christ Jews and Greeks, slaves and free met together as equals, all loved by God,
all saved by Christ, all filled with the Holy Spirit. And the same is true
today. In our church we see people of different ethnic backgrounds, different political
opinions, different ages, different theological viewpoints. But we have all
been brought into this Body by the Holy Spirit and we have all been given the
same Spirit to drink.

In other words, what we have in common is
that the Holy Spirit is quenching our spiritual thirst. In John 7 Jesus says,

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and
let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the
believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:38).

And John adds the comment,

‘Now he said this about the Spirit, which
believers in him were to receive’ (v.39).

It’s interesting that in that verse Jesus
says, “Out of the believer’s heart
shall flow rivers of living water”. If Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit
quenching our thirst, you’d have thought he would say “into the believer’s heart”. But no – it’s as the Spirit flows out of us that our thirst is quenched.
In other words, true Christian spirituality isn’t about ‘me, me, me’ – it’s not
about me getting my spiritual needs met. Rather, it’s about me taking my place
in the Body of Christ and using the spiritual gifts that God has given me to
help Jesus in his mission to the world.

In this mission everyone is important and
everyone has a place. Paul goes on and on at great length to drive this point
home to us, riding his illustration of the body for all it’s worth. He says
that just because a foot isn’t a hand, that doesn’t mean it’s not a member of
the body, and just because an ear isn’t an eye, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a
member of the body.If the whole body
were an eye it would be in trouble when it comes time to listen to people! And
if the whole body were an ear, it would be in trouble when it came time to
smell your food! No – our bodies have many different types of limbs and organs
– some are up front and some are hidden, some are beautiful and some look
rather odd! But they all make up one body, and if one part suffers, the whole
body suffers with it. It one part is honoured, they all rejoice together.

The church is like that. Look at Paul’s
summary in verses 27-31:

Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles,
second prophets, third teachers, then deeds of power, then gifts of healing,
forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all
apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all
possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive
for the greater gifts.

Every member of the body of Christ is
important; everyone has a role to play; everyone has been given a gift by God
that they can use to help further the work of Christ. Some of those gifts are
up front and obvious: preachers and teachers, musicians and worship leaders and
so on. Others are less spectacular, but equally important: administrators,
those with the gift of listening and caring for others, those who fix broken
furnaces and serve in food banks and build houses with Habitat for Humanity and
so on. But all work together for one end – to build up the strength of the Body
and to serve the world in the name of Jesus.

So Paul doesn’t see the church as a school
bus with a driver up front and a whole bunch of passengers. Rather, he sees it
as a team, with a coach or coaches at work helping everyone to discover their
gifts and use them to serve the church and the world in Jesus’ name.

So let me close with a few words of
application for us today.

First, let’s remember what it is we have in common. Paul says that we have all
been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was at work in our
baptism, joining us to the Body of Christ and putting the life of Christ in us.
But it doesn’t end there; Paul also says, ‘We’ve all been given the Holy Spirit
to drink’. Baptism is once for all, but drinking is not – we need to drink
again and again, or we’ll get thirsty again. And in the same way, none of this
Body of Christ stuff will work unless each of us goes on and on being filled
with the Holy Spirit. So pray every day, and keep on praying, that God will
fill you with the Holy Spirit and quench your spiritual thirst. That’s the
first thing.

Second, let’s
discover our spiritual gifts. What’s your
place in the Body? What is God challenging you
to do in his work in the Church and in the world? Are you a talking person or a
doing person? Are you a listener or a teacher? Do you have an artistic mind or
an analytical mind? Are you a good musician or a good carpenter? Do you know
how to be a friend to the friendless, or are you a thinker who loves to study
the Bible and share what you’ve learned with others?

Every gift is vital. To have a healthy Church
Jesus needs accountants and fix-it people; he needs Sunday School teachers and
musicians; he needs people who can lead public prayer and preach and administer
the sacraments; he needs visitors and counselors and people who just know how
to be a shoulder to cry on. He needs people who can raise huge amounts of money
to help the poor, and he needs people who can get involved in the political
process and try to change unjust structures in society. He needs people who can
share the gospel with others and help them become his followers. No one person
has all these gifts. In the Bible, all Christians are ministers, all willingly
sharing their gifts so that God’s work can go forward.

Third, let’s
not fall into the trap of thinking that the gifts we use inside the church
building are necessarily the most important gifts. They are certainly very
visible, but they are no more important than the others. God needs Christians
in working world who will be faithful in living as disciples of Jesus, going to
work and running businesses in ways that honour God and promote God’s kingdom
values. God needs people who will organize to help refugees and find ways of
providing housing for the homeless. And God needs witnesses and evangelists who
aren’t afraid to talk about their faith with others and invite them to become
followers of Jesus. God is at work out in the world bringing blessing and
transformation, and he wants to use you and me to help make that happen.

Fourth, let’s
work hard to make our Sunday services reflect this ‘Body of Christ’ image.
Years ago, church services were led by a paid minister and an organist; they
did everything up front, and everyone else sat and listened. Our buildings are
actually still structured that way; I’m standing on a raised platform in front
of you right now, and you’re seated in rows facing me, as if I was an actor and
you were the audience in the play. But how does that reflect the truth that the
Church is a Body, with everyone participating in its work?

Fortunately, nowadays that sort of thing is
less common. In most churches, members of the congregation are coming up to do
scripture readings. Lay people are leading the prayers of the people and
assisting with serving Holy Communion. We have greeters at the back making
people feel welcome at the beginning of the service, and people offering
special prayers for any who ask for them during communion. And we have lay
readers who help lead worship and who preach regularly as well.

And this is as it should be. Of course, at
our nine o’clock service we still have a long way to go in making that a
reality, while at ten-thirty we’ve gone further down that road. But we need to
go further yet. If you read the New Testament you will discover absolutely no
reason why one person should stand at the front and do everything during a
church service. As far as we can tell, worship was a group activity in the
early church. And so it should be today.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, Jesus
needs a Body. We, his Church, are that Body. There is no other plan. So let’s
joyfully take up the challenge, pray for the Holy Spirit’s help, and then move
out in faith, using the gifts God has given to us to make a difference for
Christ in the world.